An Army Ranger who was with Pat Tillman when the former football star was cut down by friendly fire in Afghanistan said Tuesday a commanding officer had ordered him to keep quiet about what happened. The military at first portrayed Tillman's death as the result of heroic combat with the enemy. Army Spc. Bryan O'Neal told a congressional hearing that when he got the chance to talk to Tillman's brother, who had been in a nearby convoy on the fateful day, "I was ordered not to tell him what happened." "You were ordered not to tell him?" repeated Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Roger that, Sir," replied O'Neal, dressed in his Army uniform. The revelation came as committee members questioned whether, and when, top Defense officials and the White House knew that Tillman's death in eastern Afghanistan three years ago was actually a result of gunfire from fellow U.S. soldiers.... http://news.yahoo.com

You never get much sleep at a patrol base at night. In Ramadi, where Marines man several combat outposts amid the inner city, darkness often brings fear as Iraqi security forces come and go, leaving some Marines wondering whether they are among friends or enemies. In Ghazaliya, a violent neighborhood in western Baghdad with similar combat outposts, nearby gunfire cracks through the inky blackness outside seemingly every time you drift off. And in Diyala Province, where nine U.S. soldiers died Monday, troops stand watch on rooftops overlooking stretches of palm groves where they know insurgents dwell, waiting for the right moment to strike. Increasingly across Iraq, U.S. forces are leaving the comfort and safety of their fortified mega-bases and establishing small combat outposts and patrol bases like the one insurgents struck outside Baquba that left 20 soldiers wounded as well. Some patrol bases are well protected with blast walls and large numbers of troops. ...http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1614091,00.html

Lawyers for a defense contractor accused of bribing a congressman and committing fraud with a top CIA official have asked a judge to dismiss charges. The lawyers claim the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego deliberately and illegally disclosed grand jury secrets to the news media. It also used "the grand jury as a weapon in its bureaucratic skirmishes with its Justice Department overseers in Washington, D.C.," wrote Mark Geragos, an attorney for defense contractor Brent Wilkes. The leaks created "a public atmosphere that compelled the grand jury to return indictments," Geragos wrote to U.S. District Judge Larry Burns in a request filed Monday. He called the disclosures a "gesture of defiance" by then-U.S. Attorney Carol Lam as she was forced out of office. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3076089

Centuries before it became a continent or country synonymous with wealth, power or democracy, "America" was coined by a Renaissance cartographer as the catchall designation for a world that Europeans had yet to name or explore.The name stuck despite its humble history and unsure start at a backwater French court. It celebrates the 500th anniversary of its baptism in the remote town of St. Die today, exactly a half-millennium after its first use on a world map.The murky origins are causing problems in winning recognition for the source. A resolution citing cartographer Martin Waldseemueller and the conference organized by Rene II, Duke of Lorraine, for their contribution to American history has yet to make headway in the U.S. Congress."It is under review by the committee, but it hasn't advanced yet," said Lynne Weil, a spokeswoman for Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee....http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-24-america-turns-500_N.htm?csp=34

A couple convicted of tax evasion for concealing $1.9 million in income was sentenced to prison Tue, but they refused to attend the hearing & have vowed not to leave their fortress-like mansion. Ed & Elaine Brown insist tax laws do not exist & have holed up in their hilltop home in Plainfield, which has a watchtower, concrete walls & the ability to run on wind and solar power. Ed Brown, 64, said he has stockpiled food & supplies. “The world belongs to the creator. It doesn’t belong to man,” he said Tuesday. “It doesn’t belong to the U S government.” The Browns based their defense on a theory that no law exists requiring tax payments. If the Law exists, why don’t the Government produce it and put an end these arguments? They have refused and ignored all attempts to see a copy of that law. If as they say they have it, common sense would dictate they must produce it, yet they continue to refuse. Could it be that there is no law? They wouldn’t lie about it, or would they?...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18297495/

Harsh words flew on Tuesday among President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Democrats on funding the Iraq war as Congress inched toward a possible compromise that drops timetables for withdrawing U.S. troops.In the meantime, the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Republican president were sticking to a script that has the House of Representatives passing legislation on Wednesday that sets a non-binding March 31 goal for bringing U.S. combat troops out of Iraq.On Thursday, the Senate also was expected to pass that bill, which provides an additional $100 billion this year for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush's promised veto could come as early as Monday.But some Democrats, who stress they intend to provide all the money for the troops that Bush has requested, and $4 billion more, signaled they were open to a post-veto bill that provides the funds without timetables for withdrawing troops....http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N24432695.htm